copying files without an active OS on MacBook Pro

I

igotnosmoke

Registered
Hi guys,

I have kinda hit a brick wall trying to backup files and install Mac OSX Snow Leopard on my Mac Book Pro.

My MacBook Pro orginally came with Leopard, however I deleted all partitions (by accident) and created 2 Windows partitions. Recently however I have done something that does not allow me to get into either of them which is an issue because I am unable to back up any of the files prior to installing snow leopard.

Using the snow leopard installation, I can see one of the windows partitions (despite not being able to boot from it) by loading Disk Utility however I am still unable copy the files from my Windows partition and back up onto my USB external hard drive.

Unfortunately installing snow leopard will delete any existing partition available so I was wondering how I can copy the files from my Windows partition on to my external HDD without there being an active OS (nor Mac or Windows).

Thanks in advance for any bright ideas! :-)

Spiz
 
Install OS X on your external hard drive.
When you boot to that hard drive, you should have access to any partition that OS X can read. Copy the files that you need to your external drive (which is your boot drive)

After copying all the files you need, you can then re-partition your internal hard drive, using Disk Utility. Boot your Mac to your Snow Leopard installer, and give your Mac a fresh install of 10.6
Sorry, that's as bright as I can get....!
 
Or, use Target Disk mode... which should, theoretically, make the Windows partitions available to a client Mac.

Downside: requires another Macintosh computer equipped with Firewire.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys. I had a feeling you could do something like target mode. I do have access to another mac with FW so shouldnt be a problem!

I will try target disk mode.

Cheers,
Spiz
 
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